BY JUSTIN ZHUANG, THE ENQUIRER — FOR SOMEONE who is critical of the government for being deaf to its citizen’s opinions, especially in the past, the leader of Singapore’s largest opposition political party, The Workers’ Party (WP), is ironically half-deaf himself.
As Mr Low Thia Khiang puts on his hearing aids at the start of the interview, the 52-year-old said he lost 50 per cent of high frequency hearing in both ears probably from not wearing earplugs at the shooting range during his National Service when he served as an instructor.
The severity of the problem did not hit Mr Low until he realised he could not hear during Parliament. He was seeking clarification but then-Speaker Tan Soo Khoon told him to sit down and wait for the others to finish. “But I carried on, and he thought this guy was trying to be funny,” he said.
At first Mr Low wondered why the Speaker was so angry and it was only after the session that he realised what had gone wrong.
As if being hard of hearing is not bad enough, Mr Low has problems with his English too. At the last general election, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had questioned if an apology letter written in English for Mr Low’s party candidate, Mr James Gomez, was really written by him.
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How to keep check on PAP’s position on public policy if WP does not have enough parliamentary weight to counter PAP at voting procedure? While Ministers must answer questions posed by MP at Parliament, does MP has the power to conduct audit, spot-check or investigation at the Ministry?
For one, maybe elect candidates with good hearing. More seriously, the MP has no power to conduct any of these with Ministries, except in GPCs.
I think Joe should not make fun of people with hearing handicap. Low is a good leader and have shown his resilience over the years,especially over the current resilience package.
Is that why he also did not hear LHL’s challenge to him whether WKS shld still resign? If that is the case, his hearing problem is serious, for it affects his cut and thrust – so necessary in parliamentary debates!
The WP shld also raise the following issues in parliament:
1. perceived non-independence of the Judiciary
2. independence of the Press
if its 2 out of 84,any smart leader would know what the outcome of the challenge would be. I think he did the right thing in LHL challenge.
there is no way any thick skinned minister drawing top pay n can push blame to the duty guards, with the backing of LHL will resign..
at least he is not like some other politicians who cannot stand in the next or even next next election.
anyway,don’t help the WP advertise here..the article is on Low,not what his party should do. being wise,if he did not bring it up means the priorities of the points u mentioned is probably much lower than the current budget.